Numerical models for lateral behaviour analysis of cold-formed steel framed walls : state of the art, evaluation and challenges

Cold-formed steel (CFS) shear walls are the primary lateral load resisting components in lightweight steel framed (LSF) structures. The development of increasing complex LSF structures, laterally supported by CFS walls, demands sophisticated modelling techniques for design and optimization that typically involves inherent material and geometric nonlinearities caused by large deformations. Determining the performance of CFS shear walls and accurately establishing their behavioural model are the foundations of obtaining effective responses of CFS structure under extreme loading conditions. Great progress has been made on the theories and applications of the numerical models for analysis of the lateral behaviour of CFS wall systems during the past several decades, and quite a great number of numerical models have been developed for simulating the behaviour of CFS shear walls in the literature. This study provides a comprehensive review on the numerical developments made in this area as published in leading journals, high impact conferences and codes’ provisions in the area, and looks at the challenges and gaps that need to be addressed in future research studies. The numerical models for analysing the lateral behaviour of CFS shear walls including their strengths, weaknesses, limitations employed behavioural models, contributing factors, and parameters and functions influencing their performance are discussed and compared with each other. The existing models are grouped into two categories: micro modelling methods, which simulate fine-scale details; and macro modelling methods, which amalgamate details into selected categories for further simplification.